Within the wireless industry, service providers have employed a variety of tools to aid in determining the location of a mobile device being operated by the end user. Service providers often employ some of these tools to search for mobile devices that are communicating with a wireless network via base transceiver stations (BTSs) thereof. In one instance, a tool for estimating a distance of the mobile device from a BTS in communication with the mobile device by utilizing round-trip delay (RTD) measurements therebetween.
In use, the determination of the distance of the mobile device from a BTS facilitates a handoff of the mobile device from the current BTS in communication with the mobile device to another BTS within the wireless network. In one instance, the current BTS maintains a predetermined distance from the current BTS at which a handoff should be triggered. If it is detected the mobile device crosses that predetermined distance (e.g., utilizing the RTD measurement between the mobile device), the current BTS will handoff the mobile device to another BTS.
This method of tracking a distance of a mobile device and triggering a handoff based thereon is not able to accommodate a variety of BTSs in various distances and directions from the currently communicating BTS. Typically, the predetermined distance is set at a minimum calculated from all closest surrounding BTSs. By way of example, if a predetermined distance from the currently communicating mobile device is fixed at ten miles (e.g., based on a closest BTS in a particular direction), a handoff is triggered upon the mobile device traveling ten miles in any direction, irrespective of whether the closest BTS in another particular direction is over eighty miles away. As a result, in the instance that the mobile device is traveling away from the closest BTS, a handoff is triggered prematurely causing a weak signal, or even a disconnection between the mobile device and the wireless network. This creates end user dissatisfaction.
As such, employing a flexible technique for triggering a handoff between a currently communicating BTS and the mobile device that takes into account locations and signal strengths of the closest BTSs surrounding the current BTS, and basing a handoff in accordance with this information, would enhance an end user's experience when traveling within a wireless network.